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09/29/2003-CC-Minutes-Work SessionMI1INIJTES: CITY COUNCIL -WORKSHOP SEPTEMBER 29, 2003 PRESENT: Mayor Tommy Kincaid, Councilman Jimmy Evans, Councilman Mike James, Councilman Andy Garza, Councilman Glenn Ervin ABSENT: Councilman Joe Higgs OTHERS PRESENT: City Manager Jack Smith, City Secretary/Assistant City Manager Rose Chavez, Electric Superintendent Mike Prater, Streets/Parks Superintendent John Henderson 1. Mayor called meeting to order. 2. Budget Workshop. Councilman Evans indicated that Councilman Higgs wanted to change the raises from 5% to 3%. He indicated that is where he stands as well. Councilman James indicated he did not know why they are wanting to change it after they had agreed on it at previous meetings. Councilman Evans indicated the budget was passed, and he and Councilman Higgs asked that it be put back on for amendments. Councilman James indicated he felt that when the city had a good year they should take advantage of it and take care of the employees. The employees are what make or break a city. H we had a bad year then he could see decreasing the raises. Councilman Evans indicated he had looked at the salaries, out of a are 5 people that did not get the full 2.5% merit incr discussed these salaries individually. He indicated that if t the raise, the city should get rid of them and get people wb total saved by not giving those employees the full 5% is $ Discussed original salary proposal of 5%. �e�mplo��es there wet through and yes did not deserve the money. The are worth �99.32. City Manager indicated he was trying to eliminate the "across the board" raise. He added 5% to each salary and wanted to give the supervisor an amount to pull from. This would allow them to give each employee a maximum of 5%, but they could give less. Councilman Garza indicated it appears that all of the employees, with the exception of five, got the whole 5%. City Manager indicated if they had not allocated 2.5% for cost of living, there may have been more variation. Councilman Garza indicated he felt the budget was getting out of hand as far as expenditures. Councilman James indicated if we lowered the tax rate every year to off -set the increase in evaluations, it would hurt the city in the long run. Councilman Ervin indicated he voted against the budget and tax rate. He did not know why they are having this meeting at this time. They could have had a special called meeting and taken care f this before tonight. Councilman James indicated the way that society is setup is that the more educated and more experienced individual is compensated at a higher rate. The people in the lower positions with less education will never catch up to the ones in the top. He did not agree with giving the lower paid individuals a higher percentage than the higher paid individuals. Discussed percentage of salary increases in depth. Councilman James asked if there was a reason they were wanting to shave this money off of the budget. Councilman Evans indicated he would like to see gas tanks and pumps put in, but that he did not know what Councilman Higgs' reasoning was. Mayor indicated the budget has been passed and the tax rate was passed to satisfy that budget. That is a requirement of the law that the Council must uphold. Councilman Evans asked for the amendment from a 5% to a 30/ra6se to be put on the next agenda. Councilman Ervin indicated he felt the Council should spend more time discussing the budget. Discussed budget workshops. City Secretary explained the only changes that were made from the workshops was that the sidewalk maintenance was added, and a police car was added. Discussion regarding the budget. Councilman Garza indicated he has noticed that some line item funds are not expensed year after year, but they still put it in the budget each year. City Manager indicated that its hard to know sometimes when funds will be needed. Some of the funds are in the budget for situations that may arise. Discussion. City Secretary indicated she had provided them with copies of the job descriptions so that they could study them, and see where staff felt the entry levels should be. The City has no incentive or a maximum pay rate that the employee can work toward. She indicated the job descriptions were important and she would like them adopted. There is still a lot of work, but this is a rough draft. The physical requirements will be added to each job description. Discussion regarding job descriptions. City Secretary indicated these will be on the second meeting in October. Discussion continued, staff directed to put budget amendments on next agenda. 3. Meeting Adjourned. ATT , ST: t Mayor lfe Chavez, City ,'' ,_ � � "